Water meter replacement, bed tax before council
In the News
With local schools back in session and Northwest Missouri State University students set to return for the fall semester on Aug. 29, the Maryville City Council, too, is facing a flurry of activity associated with the end of summer and the start of a new fiscal year in October.
On Monday the council will gather in special session at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, an hour and a half prior to its regular meeting, for a budget discussion during which City Manager Greg McDanel and other staffers are expected to start proposing specific spending with regard to previously set goals for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
Those objectives include:
• Implementing phase-one improvements along the South Main traffic corridor between South Avenue and the north entrance to Wal-Mart in an effort to ease traffic flow and increase pedestrian access.
• Mounting a campaign for voter renewal, probably in April 2017, of the city’s half-cent-on-the-dollar capital improvement sales tax.
• Continued maintenance and improvement of city infrastructure with an emphasis on streets and water/sewer service.
• Addressing staff compensation and professional development issues, including striking some sort of policy balance between cost-of-living wage increases and merit pay. This priority also includes a renewed emphasis on employee health and wellness as one response to a projected 10 percent increase in insurance costs.
• Continued implementation of the Mozingo Lake Recreation Park master plan, but with a shift in emphasis toward maintenance as opposed to development. The new direction follows voter approval this year of sales tax-driven financing for a city-owned conference center at the Mozingo Lake golf complex. The center is being built in conjunction with a privately developed 40-room hotel.
• Creation of financing and construction plans for a new Maryville Public Safety police and fire division headquarters, which would replace the current facility, a converted 1960s-era grocery store, at 222 E. 3rd Street.
Following the budget study session the council will turn to a lengthy agenda that embraces a number of requests from local organizations seeking funding assistance. These include the New Nodaway Humane Society, Community Foundation of Northwest Missouri, Maryville Downtown Improvement Organization, and the Maryville Public Art Committee.
The council is expected to take all of the requests under advisement for further discussion during budget talks in September.
Also scheduled to appear before the governing board is Maryville Public Library Director Stephanie Patterson, who will present her annual budget summary.
New council business includes an ordinance that would approve ballot language for a transient guest tax proposal to be placed before voters living inside the city limits during the Nov. 8 general election. Commonly referred to as a bed tax, the levy, if approved by a simple majority, would add a 5-percent surcharge to local hotel bills.
Most of the resulting revenue — $3.45 million over 23 years — would be used to help pay for a new $20 million indoor athletics facility and special events center at Northwest Missouri State University. The remaining income, projected at about $65,000 a year, is to be used for projects associated with tourism and economic development.
A second ordinance calls for council approval of a contract with Schneider Electric, a multi-national corporation specializing in energy efficiency and automation, for replacement of the city’s 4,000-plus business and residential water meters.
The devices would be replaced with “smart meters,” which can be read remotely and which Schneider claims will significantly increase revenue due to improved accuracy.
Company representatives earlier told the council that meter replacement will provide a revenue boost and efficiency savings totaling about $7.8 million over 15 years. Of that amount, $3.6 million would be paid to Schneider for installation of the new system, leaving a net improvement in the city’s bottom line of nearly $4.2 million.
Other business includes the annual adjustment of property tax levies providing revenue for the city’s General Fund, the library, Parks & Recreation, and municipal debt retirement.
The General Fund levy is to increase from 0.3415 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 0.3555. The library and parks taxes will both go up a fraction of a cent, and the debt retirement levy will decrease from 0.1352 cents to 0.1290 cents.
Additional items on the agenda include:
• A proposed lot split at 1315 E. Jenkins St. related to construction of a new Habitat for Humanity house.
• Approval of land leases for hangars at Northwest Missouri Regional Airport.
• Ordinances providing for the sale or lease of heavy equipment formerly used by the city to operate the solid waste transfer station north of town. The equipment is to be turned over to Maryville Transfer LLC, a consortium of private waste haulers that recently leased the facility and is running it as a private business.
